Why Was One Man Left Out Of This Caption?

Why Was The First Gentleman of Luxembourg Left Out Of This White House Photo Caption?

In what looked like a pretty standard shot of NATO leaders' spouses at the Royal Castle of Laeken in Brussels, first lady Melania Trump stands alongside heavy hitters like Queen Mathilde of Belgium; the first lady of France, Brigitte Macron; and first lady Emine Erdoğan of Turkey. Another day, another political photo op, right? Well, the internet's quick fingers and even quicker wits pointed out that the White House's caption (Andrea Hanks, the official White House photographer, took the photo) omitted one of the people photographed: the first gentleman of Luxembourg, Gauthier Destenay.

The Daily Beast reports that "Destenay, an architect, married Prime Minister Xavier Bettel two years ago," which makes him the very first EU head to marry someone of the same sex. In fact, during the same photo call, photos of Destenay rubbing shoulders with the other NATO spouses went viral, so he's become something of an internet sensation — which probably led to the ire over the White House's caption.

BuzzFeed notes that nine hours after the photo went live, the White House added Destenay's name, though it didn't directly identify him with any position: the edited caption simply added "Luxembourg's Gauthier Destenay." (However, the caption also omits official titles for Slovenia and Bulgaria, as well). The Mirror and the Guardian are going as far as calling this a case of homophobia in the White House, thought it's difficult to say whether or not it's just a case of lazy writing on the part of the White House's social media team.

While the internet ships Destenay and Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, know that they're not actually the very first same-sex couple at politics' highest levels. In 2010, the Icelandic Prime Minister Johanna Siguroardottir (who also happened to be Iceland's very first female prime minister) became the first world leader with a same-sex partner.